SuperLiga: It's like NASCAR, says Garber

Commissioner Garber responded to the threat made by the MLS Players Union that Houston and New England would split the SuperLiga final payout among all the players on each club regardless of the outcome, saying that such an arrangement was a violation of the collective Bargaining agreement.

As reported by Steve Goff, Garber told reporters that the players plan to split the money " is not something [MLS is] going to allow." And if they decide to go ahead with the plan? He offered this ominous warning:

"... We will have to manage it the way we would manage any other violation of the collective bargaining agreement. ... We will pay the prize money as it was originially dictated as determined by MLS ownership. If there is something we determine is a violation of the CBA, we will address it."

Garber acknowledged that the payout to the players would be just $150,000 to the winning side (which he mentioned was equivalent to the MLS Cup payout), and added that the rest of the advertised $1 million will go to the club owner.

"It's no different from a NASCAR tournament where the team owner wins prize money and the team owner has a driver under contract, and whatever his agreement with that driver is is what that driver receives. ... What I have found very frustrating is that this has been positioned as the league misleading the public by saying that the prize would go to the players. We never, ever implied that the players would get the one million dollars. The winner is the team. The club gets that million-dollar prize, and then we have an agreement as to what that share would be to the players."

The problem with Garner's position is that in NASCAR the individual owner can set the amount of the prize money awarded to his driver and it is usually a much bigger percentage than 15%. In MLS, the owners are really just investors and the amount of money to be awarded was set by the league, not the owners of the specific clubs. There were some reports that owner-operators of both Houston and New England were willing to work out a deal, but MLS squashed the deal.

Now Garber expects the two teams to go out there and "be professionals."

"I would expect that our players would be playing for the pride of being the best team of eight teams in this tournament. I don't recall anybody ever talking about what the players' share of prize money is for winning the MLS Cup."

I also don't recall the MLS Cup being hyped as having the "heftiest winner's purse in North American soccer history."